


The Right Story to Tell

by Glitter_Lisp



Series: six [2]
Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Background Relationships, Bipolar Disorder, Bipolar Harry Hook, Breaking Up & Making Up, F/M, Hospitals, Hurt/Comfort, Single Parent Harry Hook, Tattoos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-04
Updated: 2020-02-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:33:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22554877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glitter_Lisp/pseuds/Glitter_Lisp
Summary: Harry was on his third cup of coffee, shaking from cold and caffeine and the last dregs of adrenaline, when the door to the waiting room pushed open and someone came running in. He was startled enough to jump but too exhausted for the movement to be anything more than a twitch. CJ, using his coat as a blanket and his thigh as a pillow, squeezed her stuffed shark tighter to her chest but didn't otherwise stir.When he looked up from his styrofoam cup, Uma was standing halfway across the waiting room, jaw hanging open.“Hey,” Harry said. Uma looked like she had just woken up, groggy and disoriented, and Harry had been awake for longer than he wanted to think about. He figured they were both too tired for any kind of dramatic reunion.-----Harry and Uma haven't spoken since their explosive breakup six years ago. Sitting by themselves in a waiting room at two thirty in the morning seems as good a time as any to try bridging the gap left after more than half a decade of trying to forget each other.
Relationships: Gil & Harry Hook & Uma, Harry Hook & Uma, Harry Hook/Uma
Series: six [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1620172
Comments: 1
Kudos: 49





	The Right Story to Tell

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings (and a few spoilers) in the end notes.
> 
> You know, I normally have a really hard time writing about bipolar characters, because it hits a little too close to home. Apparently the key to feeling comfortable talking about mood episodes is just... to have a mood episode. Because I've busted out three of these in the past few days, amazing.
> 
> (I also just... really needed to write a happy ending. It's been a rough few days.)

Harry was on his third cup of coffee, shaking from cold and caffeine and the last dregs of adrenaline, when the door to the waiting room pushed open and someone came running in. He was startled enough to jump but too exhausted for the movement to be anything more than a twitch. CJ, using his coat as a blanket and his thigh as a pillow, squeezed her stuffed shark tighter to her chest but didn't otherwise stir. 

When he looked up from his styrofoam cup, Uma was standing halfway across the waiting room, jaw hanging open. 

“Hey,” Harry said. Uma looked like she had just woken up, groggy and disoriented, and Harry had been awake for longer than he wanted to think about. He figured they were both too tired for any kind of dramatic reunion. 

“Hey,” Uma said, giving herself a little shake and continuing to walk towards him. “Where'd you come from?”

“Just flew in a few hours ago,” Harry said dully. “Gil was supposed to pick us up at the airport, didn't show up. A nurse here picked up like the third time I tried to call him, so we got a cab and came straight over.”

Uma dropped into a seat across from him, and the plastic-covered cushion creaked loudly enough that they both winced. “Have you heard anything?” 

“Not since I got here,” Harry said, twisting the cup between his hands before making himself take another fortifying swallow. It was cold and disgusting, but it kept him awake. “He's gonna be fine, though, the nurse said. Probably.”

“Yeah, he's tough,” Uma said, sounding just as nervous as Harry felt. At least, as nervous as he had felt a few hours ago, before exhaustion whittled away every other feeling than _tired._ Her eyes drifted toward the indistinguishable lump of fabric next to Harry. “Is that, uh…?”

“CJ, yeah,” Harry said. He hadn't realized until that moment how softly he was speaking, or that Uma had automatically matched his volume. “She just finally fell asleep. Good thing, too; she was getting antsy.”

“Yeah, this probably isn't the best place for a tantrum,” Uma agreed. “How old is she now?”

“Just turned two.” Harry ran a hand gently over her hair, smoothing back the mess of blond curls that had fallen around her face. She wrinkled her nose and rolled over so she was facing out toward the room, shark pulled up against her face. 

When he looked back up, Uma was smiling faintly at CJ’s toy. “Didn't think I'd ever see that thing again.”

Harry almost laughed, glancing back down at the old shark. “He's made it a lot longer than anyone would have expected, hasn't he? She won't sleep without him; he had to come on the plane with us.”

“Was it her first time flying?” Uma asked, leaning back in her chair and trying to get comfortable. It was a lost cause; Harry had been here for hours already and could have told her they didn't get any better. From the grimace on her face, she was quickly figuring that out herself. 

“Second, technically,” Harry said. “But she was barely a month old last time. Slept through the whole thing like an angel. This time our first flight got delayed, we missed our connection, and then when we got here…” He shrugged. “You know.”

“Yeah,” Uma said softly. “I only woke up like a half an hour ago, just got up to get some water and saw the missed messages. My alarm isn't even supposed to go off until seven.”

“He’d probably be out of surgery by then,” Harry said with a shrug. “And I'd have taken his key and gone to his house so I could fucking sleep.”

Uma's eyes were soft. “Yeah, you look like shit. How long have you been awake?”

Harry picked up his phone, abandoned on the seat next to him when the battery had started to drop, and stared at it until he could make sense of the blurry numbers. He tried and failed to calculate the time difference, then shrugged again and dropped the phone back on the seat. “Since around five my time. Uh, AM. Our flight left a little before noon, then it was flying with a cranky toddler for three hours, then a fucking _nine hour_ delay, then a few more hours on the second flight, and we landed about three hours ago. So however long that is.”

Uma's brow furrowed. “Did you sleep at all on the plane? Or during your layover?”

“Can't sleep on planes, you know that. And CJ was a terror during the delay. Kept me and half the airport up.”

“Jesus, Harry, that's like an entire day.”

He nodded blearily. “Sounds about right.”

“How are you still _alive?”_

He gestured with the cup in his hand. “Shitty hospital coffee. And shitty airport coffee before that.”

Uma leaned back in her seat and scrubbed her hands over her face. “God. Are you okay? Like, I mean…” She trailed off, then sighed. “Just, are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Harry said. “No. I don't know. This is horrible and I'm exhausted and I nearly spilled coffee on CJ’s face earlier because my hands are shaking so much.” He laughed, hoarse and dry. “And I'm scared _shitless.”_

“Me too,” Uma said softly, dragging her hands down her face and dropping them in her lap. “What the hell even happened? They wouldn’t give me any real information over the phone, and I was so freaked out when I got here I didn't even think to ask.”

“Uh, I guess he had a seizure while he was driving to the airport to pick me and CJ up,” Harry mumbled. “Didn't hit anyone, but he cracked his skull pretty good, and when the doctors were fixing that, they found the tumor.”

“God,” Uma breathed. “That's– God.”

“‘Bout sums it up,” Harry said. He took another sip of his coffee, grimaced, and set it on the armrest. “I tried to get in touch with Jay and Carlos, but I haven't heard back from either of them.”

“They've got a match today,” Uma said. “Probably won't see anything for hours. God, I hate when they're in Europe. Not getting to see them for weeks sucks, and then shit like this happens and no one can tell them.”

“God, our lives are weird,” Harry muttered. He swallowed, hard. “I googled it, you know, how long it takes? Surgery like this? And it's supposed to be somewhere around four or five hours, or maybe even six, and they started like… the accident was four hours ago, and they had to do some other stuff first, some sort of prep I guess, and they didn't even find it at first. So they only started around like an hour and a half ago, the nurse said.”

“You should sleep,” Uma said. “Or try to, at least. I'll wait up.”

Harry shook his head. “Been trying. I'm too jittery. And I'm so tired I think I might throw up, and I haven't eaten in hours, and frankly I'm worried that if I move an inch CJ’s going to wake up again, and I _cannot_ handle that right now, and the only reason I'm not having a panic attack is because I'm literally too exhausted to do it, and my best friend is having fucking _emergency brain surgery–”_

“Harry!” Uma hissed, cutting her eyes meaningfully down at CJ. “Chill. He's gonna be fine. Gil’s the toughest person alive. Plus,” she added with a tired grin, “he always got the village idiot when we played mafia, remember? I feel like that means something.”

“Too dumb to die the first time,” Harry mumbled.

“Yeah. He's gonna be okay.”

“I'm so fucking tired,” Harry said, voice cracking. “I hate this. Is it always this awful?”

Uma crossed her arms over her stomach and swallowed hard enough that he could hear it. “Yeah. Pretty much.”

“God. I'm sorry for– well.” Uma looked away, rubbing at her bare arms, and Harry frowned. “Are you cold? I've got a hoodie in my bag.” He nodded towards the suitcase sitting a few feet away, halfway tucked under one of the benches. He'd had to bring it in with him, CJ on his hip and the old bag dragging behind him while he babbled at the nurse in the emergency room. He wasn’t sure he had been entirely coherent, but one way or the other he had found himself being led to the waiting room. 

“Thanks,” Uma sighed, getting up to drag his suitcase out and unzip it. She frowned at the contents, then looked back up at him even as she dug through it to find the hoodie. “How long are you visiting? This thing is packed.”

“We're not,” Harry said. “I got a job here. It's better pay and closer to Audrey, besides. She can't make it out to St. Thad's too often, and it's rough on both of them, not getting to see each other. We're supposed to be staying with Gil until I find an apartment.”

“You're moving back to Auradon,” Uma said blankly, going still. _“You're_ moving back to Auradon.”

“Yeah.”

Uma swallowed and looked down at the suitcase, finally extricating the hoodie and pulling it on before she spoke again, slow and hesitant. “I, uh, I guess we're gonna be seeing a lot of each other.”

“We don't have to,” Harry said. “I know it's…” He sighed. “We don't have to.”

“No, it's fine, it's fine,” Uma said, zipping the bag up and returning to her seat. “We're adults. We can talk to each other without losing it.”

“Yeah,” Harry said. “We're not twenty anymore. We can have a normal conversation.” He wondered if his smile looked as sick as it felt. “And all it takes is emergency surgery and sleep deprivation to make it happen.”

Uma snorted and tucked her knees up to her chest. Harry cocked his head to the side. 

“Are you still wearing pajama pants?”

Uma shrugged and looked away. “I was kind of in a hurry. I didn't want to take the time to change.” She grinned cautiously. “I told them I was his girlfriend.” Harry snorted, and her grin widened. “I'm one of his emergency contacts, they didn't even question it.”

“You and Gil,” Harry said, grinning back. “There's a thought.”

“What did you tell them?”

“I–” He snickered. “I told them I was his boyfriend, actually.”

Uma burst out laughing. “How the hell did that work? We must have talked to different–”

CJ yawned. Uma clapped a hand over her mouth, and Harry froze. _Go back to sleep_ , he silently begged her. _Please go back to sleep._

No such luck. CJ cracked her eyes open and rubbed at them with a small, chubby fist before rolling onto her back to look up at him. “Daddy?”

Harry sighed. “Yeah, duck?”

“Where's Gil?”

“He's still with the doctors,” Harry said gently. “They're trying to help him feel better.”

CJ nodded drowsily. “Almost done?”

Harry sighed and ran a hand through her hair, picking gently through the knots. “Yeah, sweetheart, just a few hours. How about you go back to sleep, huh? You can just take a nice nap until Uncle Gil wakes up. I know you're tired.”

“I'm tired,” CJ agreed, but rather than put her head back down, she pushed herself up and crawled clumsily into Harry's lap, plastering herself to his chest with her shark pressed between their stomachs. Harry sighed and rearranged her into a position that wouldn't leave them both with aching necks later, then nodded toward the jacket she had knocked to the ground when she sat up. 

“Can you hand me that?” he asked Uma softly. “She's gonna get cold.”

Uma was staring at him oddly, but she bent down without a word and handed him the coat, watching as Harry gently tucked it around CJ. He held her for a minute, waiting until her breathing evened out it to soft snores, then frowned at Uma, suddenly self-conscious. “What?”

“Nothing, sorry,” Uma said, shaking her head as though to clear it. “You're just really good with her, that's all.”

“Well, yeah,” Harry said, frown deepening.

“You used to be really awkward with kids.”

Harry shrugged. “I also used to spend every other weekend in the ER. Things change.”

“Yeah,” Uma said softly, looking down. “Guess they do.”

Harry debated for a moment, grimacing, then sighed. “I'm on meds now,” he offered. “I don't know if Gil’s told you.”

Uma's head jerked up, eyes wide. “Wait, really?”

“Yeah,” Harry said, shrugging awkwardly. “For a few years now, for the anxiety and, um, you know. The other stuff.”

Uma ducked her head again and swiped a hand across her eyes, but not before he saw the way they had gone shiny and wet. “Fuck,” she said, voice thick. “That's really– that– I can't tell you how good it is to hear that.” She sniffed and offered him a watery smile. “I've been worrying about you.”

“For six years?” 

Uma shrugged. “Yeah.”

“I've been doing the same thing,” Harry admitted. “I know I put you through a lot.”

“You _went_ through a lot,” Uma corrected. 

“And dragged you along with me,” Harry countered. “And then blamed you for leaving because I'm a selfish bastard.”

“I…” Uma opened her mouth, then trailed off and shook her head. “I don't want to have this conversation right now. I don't really want to have this conversation at all, actually.”

Harry groaned and tipped his head back. “Me neither. I'm sorry, I'm just snappish right now. I shouldn't pick at you.”

Uma hesitated. “We… probably are gonna have to talk about it, if you're back in the area and we're gonna be seeing each other sometimes. Just not now. Not until we know Gil’s okay.”

“Yeah,” Harry sighed. “We're not going to be thinking clearly enough anyways. Too tired. I don't want to know what kind of fight we'd get in.”

“Are you hungry?” Uma asked. “You said you haven't eaten.” 

It wasn't a smooth change of topic, but Harry was grateful for it all the same. “I'm starving,” he said honestly. “And god knows CJ’s going to be furious if she wakes up and I don't have any solid food for her. All I've got left are fruit gummies and goldfish crackers.”

Uma glanced down at her phone. “I don't know if the cafeteria is open this late, but I can run down and check.”

 _“Yes,”_ Harry said, nodding fervently. “Please. My stomach is about to cave in.”

Uma snorted. “Can't have that. Give me your phone, I'm gonna put my number in.” She held her hand out, then froze. “If, I mean, if that's okay? Just so you can let me know if something happens?”

“Oh, yeah, yeah, that's fine,” Harry said quickly, snatching it off the chair and unlocking it before handing it over. “Just text yourself so you can have mine, too.”

“Awesome.”

Uma tapped at his phone for a second, and a moment later Harry heard hers buzz. She frowned when she handed his back to him. “You know you're at seventeen percent?”

“Lost my charger,” he said with a shrug. “Thought I left it in my carry-on, then thought I left it in my suitcase, now I'm pretty sure I just left it back home. Or maybe in the taxi, who knows. I asked if they had one at the nurses station and no one did, so I guess it's just gonna–” He cut himself off before he could say _die._ “Run down.”

“I'll see if I can find one,” Uma promised. “I know I have a cord in my car, but I don't know about a power block.”

“Thanks,” he said, and dropped his head back against the seat again. “No worries if you can't. And let me know how much the food costs; I'll pay you back.”

Uma snorted. “It's probably gonna be shitty vending machine sandwiches. I think I can afford it.”

She hesitated for a moment, hovering awkwardly in front of him, before she reached out with one foot and gently nudged the toe of his boot with hers. She gave him a quick, encouraging smile when he rolled his head around to look at her, then spun on her heel. She was out the door before Harry could say a word. 

He wasn't sure if he actually fell asleep or if he just zoned out, but it felt like he blinked and Uma was suddenly back in front of him, a plastic bag in one hand and a short white cord in the other. 

“Sorry, did I wake you up?” she whispered. 

“Dunno,” Harry said, closing his eyes again. “You got food?”

“Yeah, and a charger. I called it, too: shitty vending machine sandwiches. I got a couple, wasn't sure what you'd want.” She started to hand him the bag, realized his arms were still wrapped around CJ, then pulled them out herself, squatting down and setting them on the chair beside his phone. “BLT, turkey club, and bacon ranch,” she said. “I also got one of those little yogurt trays with fruit and nuts?” She glanced up at him for a brief second before darting her eyes away as she pulled out a plastic container. “I figured it would be easier for CJ to eat. You’d probably have to cut up a sandwich.”

Harry's heart lurched. “Thanks,” he said, voice suddenly uneven. “That– that was really nice of you.”

Uma looked alarmed, and she paused in pulling two water bottles out of the bag. “Are you crying? Oh my god, please don't cry.”

Harry pressed his shaking hand to his mouth and opened his eyes as wide as they could go like he could dry them out before the tears suddenly burning behind them fell. Every muscle in his body ached. His head felt like it was full of stones, aching and heavy. CJ was exhausted and miserable. Gil was hurt and, no matter how hopeful Harry tried to be, he was painfully aware of just how badly the surgery could go. 

And Uma was there. 

“Sorry,” he mumbled through his fingers. “Sorry, I–” He closed his eyes and let out a long, shuddering breath. “It's been a long day.”

Uma snorted. “No kidding.” She grimaced as she stood and her knees popped loudly. “I feel like my brain’s about to dribble out my ears. I'm honestly amazed you're still breathing.”

“Not sure I am,” Harry said with a weak grin. “Would you mind unwrapping that BLT for me? CJ’s got my arm in a death grip.”

“Yeah, sure.”

He wriggled his left arm out from under his coat enough to grab the sandwich that Uma halfway unwrapped for him. CJ, clutching both her shark and Harry's right arm, rocked a little with the movement but didn't so much as yawn. He crammed as much as he could into his mouth, closing his eyes and sighing in relief. The bread was stale and the lettuce was wilted, but it was the first thing he'd eaten other than potato chips and candy in hours. A few bites and a long swallow from the water bottle Uma opened for him settled some of the roiling in his stomach, and once he had devoured the sandwich and drunk half the bottle, he could feel his throbbing headache starting to fade. 

Uma was watching him, nose wrinkled in disgusted fascination. “I don't think I've ever seen anyone eat that fast.”

Harry shrugged. “‘M hungry.”

“Yeah, I got that,” she said dryly. She had only taken a few bites of the turkey club, picking at it slowly while he had nearly inhaled his, but she just shrugged when she noticed him watching. “I just woke up. I won't be hungry for hours.”

“Fair point.”

He leaned back in his seat, groaning softly as he stretched out his stiff legs. CJ mumbled something and tucked her head down against shoulder, and he absentmindedly smoothed his hand down her back until she settled. 

Uma's eyes caught on his hand. “That's new.”

“Hm? Oh, yeah.” He curled his fingers in, then wiggled them in a little wave, displaying the ink that stretched out from under the long sleeve of his shirt up to his wrist and halfway up his palm. “Got it a few years ago. I was tired of looking at the damn things.”

“The scars,” Uma said, not quite a question. Harry nodded anyways. 

“Yeah. You can still see them if you're looking for them, but most people aren't looking for them. Which is the point.”

“Oh.”

They were skirting dangerously close to the other conversation, the one they weren't going to have. “That's why I'm moving here,” Harry said quickly, and he didn't think he imagined Uma's quiet, relieved sigh. “The job I got. I designed this, and when I brought the drawing in to get it done they asked to see my portfolio. Been working there since before CJ was born, only just finished my apprenticeship last year. And I love the place, but it's small. There's a shop here that needed someone, and Audrey and I were already talking about me moving closer.”

“That's really cool,” Uma said, smiling slightly. “You've always been good at that artsy stuff.”

“Thanks,” Harry said, ducking his head as he felt his cheeks warm. “I really love it.”

“How far up does it go?” Uma asked curiously, taking another tiny bite of her sandwich. “Past your sleeve?”

“Oh, yeah, it goes all the way up,” Harry said. “Wraps over my shoulder and down across my back.”

“Geez.” Uma raised her eyebrows and took a swig of water. “How long did that take?”

Harry grimaced. “A few months. We had to split it into a half a dozen sessions every two or three weeks; there was no possible way to get it all done at once. I started working there before we even finished it, actually.”

“Can I see it?”

Harry's eyes widened, and he saw the moment Uma realized what she had said. 

“Oh god, no,” she said, waving her hands frantically. “I meant, like, a picture, not even of the whole thing, or just the drawing, or a picture _of_ the drawing, you don't–”

“Right, right, of course,” Harry said, letting out a loud breath. He wasn't sure if it was relief or not, and he didn't care to examine it. “That makes more–”

“I didn't mean you should–”

“No, yeah,” he said quickly. “Yeah, I know, I figured. I've got pictures on my phone. They're not pictures of the tattoo, but it was me and CJ at the beach last summer, so you can, um, see them.”

He scrambled for his phone, near-desperate for something to break the awkward tension, and quickly thumbed through his photos before shoving it towards Uma. “Here. That, um, you can look through the whole album there.”

Uma's smile was pained as their hands fumbled and nearly dropped the phone, but she caught it and began flipping through, smile widening into a grin. “That's so cute,” she murmured. “God, those little ruffles.”

Harry grinned, fondness at the memory overriding the lingering discomfort. “Audrey picked it out for her. Said she needed to dress up for the occasion.”

“Occasion?” Uma asked curiously, glancing up with her finger still resting on the screen. 

“Yeah, that was her first time at the beach. Audrey was in Paris the year before, so we put it off until she could come up.” He grinned. “There's this one picture somewhere in there, where I handed CJ off to Audrey and the second she had her she just immediately shoved me into the water.”

Uma thumbed through a few more pictures until she found it and started laughing, biting her lip to keep from waking CJ up again. Harry had already seen the picture a hundred times, but he still grinned when she turned it around to show him; no matter how many times he saw it, he didn't think he would ever stop snickering at his own undignified sprawl, head under the water but all four limbs flailing above it, and the way Audrey and CJ both had their heads thrown back in laughter. 

“Don't take this the wrong way,” Uma said, “because I swear I'm not trying to be petty or sarcastic or anything.”

“Okay,” Harry said slowly. “What?”

“I think it's cool that you and Audrey are still friends. Even though it didn't work out.”

Harry's stomach twisted. “Yeah, well. The thing with Audrey wasn't ever… I mean, she's great. I love her. But we weren't ever like that, and we didn't want to try to force it and end up hating each other. Figured it would be easier on CJ if we could still be friends, even if we couldn't be together.”

Uma hummed, still grinning, and continued sliding through the photos until she stopped on one, eyes widening. “Wow,” she breathed, and he saw her pinch her fingers together to zoom in. “You designed that?”

Harry ducked his head, feeling himself blush. “Yeah. I mean, Jonas—he's the one who did it for me—had to change some bits, to make it actually work, but yeah. Spent an age working on it before I brought it in.”

“It's beautiful,” Uma murmured. “That–” She frowned, holding the phone closer and squinting. “Is that _The Lost Revenge?”_

His blush deepened to something almost painfully hot. He hadn't thought about the fact the Uma was one of the only three people on earth who would recognize the ship sailing across his chest. “Um, yeah. It is.”

“‘Calling out to lost boys and girls,’” Uma read. She looked up at him and cocked her head to the side. “Why that line?”

Harry fought the urge to snatch the phone back and hide it in his pocket. She had already seen it, and it wasn't like he was embarrassed, not really. It just felt oddly intimate to talk about. 

“Because, you know. I felt lost. For a long time. Kind of the point of the whole game, wasn't it? Finding somewhere? I don't know, I thought about that lot, when I was starting the meds and trying to get my shit together. How I missed it. Tried to, I don't know.” He shrugged again, avoiding her eyes. “Kind of get back to it, I guess.”

When he glanced back up, Uma was smiling at him. “Sap,” she said fondly. She started to hand the phone back to him, then blinked. “Oh, I forgot that I found my charger. You want me to plug this in?”

“Would you?” Harry asked. “This'd be a pretty shitty time to have it die.” Uma bent over by a socket to plug the charger in, and they both grimaced at the sound of her back cracking when she stood up. 

“Have you called anyone?” Harry asked. “I don't have Mal or Ben’s numbers.”

“Yeah.” Uma dropped back into her chair, groaning softly and stretching her legs out in front of her. “They’re on their way; they were visiting Mal's dad in Vegas. Evie’s with them, doing some show. Do you think it's worth it to try Jay and Carlos again?”

“I wouldn't bother,” Harry said, eyes drifting shut despite his best effort to keep them open. “You know they won't get them for hours, and I already left them messages. Texted the twins, too, but god only knows if they'll actually answer. Audrey’s on her way, though.”

“Oh.”

Harry cracked an eye open to look at her. “‘Oh,’ what?”

Uma shrugged. “I didn't know she and Gil knew each other that well.”

Harry sighed and closed his eyes again, letting his head roll back to rest against the seat. “Pretty well, I guess; he's CJ’s godfather. But she's mostly coming to pick CJ up. Not supposed to take her till Friday, but she's gonna get her early so I can stay here.”

Uma cleared her throat. “She's coming here?”

“Yeah.”

He couldn't see it, but he heard rustling fabric and knew that Uma was rubbing her hands up and down her thighs the way she always did when she got nervous. “Do you know when she'll get here?”

“Called her right before you showed up,” Harry murmured. “Maybe another few hours. She's in Atlanta.”

Uma huffed out a relieved breath. “Oh. That, uh, that's really cool of her, that she's coming early.”

“She loves CJ.” Harry squeezed her a little closer, and she sighed contentedly in her sleep. “Audrey and I weren't ever going to work out, but she's a good mum.”

“Is it weird?” Uma asked. “I only saw my dad maybe a half a dozen times after the divorce, because he and Mom fought so much. He just stopped coming around. But you and Audrey seem pretty tight.”

Harry hummed thoughtfully. “We do have to work at it sometimes. I've got full custody, you know. We agreed on that before she even hit six months. Audrey's allowed to see her whenever she wants, but it's tricky sometimes, balancing how I've been raising CJ and the way Audrey wants to act with her. It's not anything bad, but I think she just tries to make up for not being around much, you know? She can go a little overboard.”

“She's definitely got the money for it,” Uma said dryly. “If anyone can afford to go overboard, it's probably her.” Harry snorted. 

“True.”

Uma hesitated, then finally blurted out, “Okay, I gotta ask. Where the hell did you even meet her? _How_ the hell did you even meet her? I know it wasn't in St. Thad’s.”

Harry snickered. “Definitely not. Audrey Rose would never just wander through somewhere like that. Can you imagine? Nah, we met in New York. I was there for a tattoo expo, and she was doing some press junket thing for _VK._ Chad Charming came by to get a piece, then brought Audrey back the next day.”

“You gave her a tattoo the first time you met her?”

Harry nodded as much as he could without actually lifting his head. “I mean, that's what I was there for. We got to talking, and she just sort of hung around for awhile. I knew she was an actor, but I'd literally never heard of the movies. Think she liked that.”

Uma laughed like she couldn't help it. “Seriously? I'd give you never seeing them, but you'd never even heard of them?”

Harry grimaced. “My dad died right before the first movie came out. I was distracted.”

There was a long pause, to the point where Harry wondered if they were done talking about it, before Uma asked, “James died?”

“Drank himself to death a year after I got back.”

“Well, shit.”

Harry huffed out a noise that almost managed to be a laugh. “Relax, I'm not exactly torn up about it. Hell, it was kind of a kick in the ass. Freaked me out enough to finally get me started on the meds, and I used the inheritance to get the tattoo. Best thing he ever gave me.”

“Guess that's something,” Uma muttered. “So James died, you missed the biggest movie of the year, and then you didn't recognize two of the biggest actors in the fucking country.”

“I sort of recognized Chad,” Harry said defensively. “I just couldn't remember what I'd seen him in. Figured he must have been a guest star in some TV show or other. I knew Audrey was an actress because he said when he brought her that they worked together, but nah. I had no clue. We spent the whole two weeks together and she didn't mention it. Then I went home, she went home, and we didn't talk until she called me two months later to tell me she was pregnant.”

“Oh my god.” Uma sounded so stunned that he finally dragged his eyes open again to see her gobsmacked expression. “You only knew her for two weeks?”

“Well, one weekend to another. So more like nine days.”

“Jesus. And she got pregnant. That's fucking wild.”

Harry shrugged uncomfortably and looked away. “You know. Shit happens, I guess, but it worked out okay. We got CJ out of it. Turned out all right.”

Uma let out a low whistle. “I remember seeing online that she was pregnant and wouldn't tell anyone who the dad was. Everyone thought it had to be Chad Charming, or someone else from the movie. I thought Gil was just yanking my chain when he told me it was you.”

“I sort of thought she was doing the same thing to me,” Harry admitted. “Because I had looked her up when I got home and lost my mind about it. Actually, Gil thought I was bullshitting him, too. I had to call him and Audrey at the same time to prove it, then FaceTime them at the same time when he didn't believe that, either. It's not a whole lot of people that know.”

He closed his eyes again as he yawned, then didn't bother to reopen them. “Audrey tries to keep her out of the press, you know? She's barely a toddler. Audrey grew up famous, and it was hard on her. She doesn't want the same thing to happen to CJ.”

“Fair enough,” Uma said, and was tactful enough not to mention Audrey's very public breakdown when she was nineteen. Years later, she and Harry had laughed instead of crying at the fact that they had fallen apart almost at the same time, and barely an hour away from each other—Harry had been admitted to the ER in Auradon two days before Audrey was arrested in LA for breaking a producer’s nose. 

He cleared his throat. “What time is it?”

“Oh, uh… my phone says almost four.”

“So it's been about three hours since they started,” Harry murmured.

“How long did you say it's supposed to take?”

Harry tried to shrug only to discover that his arm felt like lead. “Four hours at least. Could be up to six. Or more, I guess, if–” His voice broke, and he swallowed a few times until he could get it back under control. “If something goes wrong.”

Uma muttered something under her breath, then asked, “He’s already had a seizure and emergency brain surgery tonight. If one more thing goes wrong, we might just have to accept the fact that he's literally cursed.”

Harry giggled despite himself. If it sounded a little hysterical, Uma didn't mention it. “We all knew he sold his soul to the devil for that hair. It's just finally catching up with him.”

He and Uma seemed to come to the realization at the same time. Harry's head snapped up and his eyes popped open just in time to see Uma's widen. 

“Oh my _god,”_ Harry said. 

“They must have _shaved his head,”_ Uma said, a kind of horrified awe in her voice. “The one damn thing on this earth he's vain about. Oh my god.”

“He's gonna lose his mind when he wakes up,” Harry said wonderingly. “Has he had short hair at any point in his life?”

“Maybe when he was born,” Uma said. She pressed her hands over her mouth, looking like she was trying to stop herself from shrieking out loud and waking CJ up. “Oh my god. Oh my _fucking_ god. Holy shit.”

Harry giggled again, hard enough that he was shaking with it. He ducked his head down, hiding his face against CJ’s hair, and found that he couldn't stop shaking. The noise he let out was less a laugh and more a sob, exhaustion and fear and the myriad of mixed feelings that came with unexpectedly seeing Uma again suddenly catching up with him all at once. 

CJ, thank god, was too tired to move as Harry dragged in a deep breath, wrestling himself back under control. 

“Sorry,” he gasped, voice shaking. “Sorry, fuck, I'm sorry, I can't– I'm fine. I'm fine.”

Uma hesitated, then said softly, “You don't have to be. This is fucked up. You haven't slept in like three years, and Gil’s in the hospital, and.” She scuffed her foot against the floor. When Harry forced himself to look up, she was staring determinedly at her lap. “And you and me.”

Harry barked out a laugh. “Yeah,” he said, then sniffled. “Not how I planned this.”

“How exactly _did_ you plan this?” Uma asked, glancing up at him. “Like, were you just gonna show up at game night and surprise everyone?”

Harry sniffed again and scrubbed the back of his wrist across his eyes. “Nah,” he said with a wet laugh. “Game night's sacred. I'd derail the whole thing.”

“Fair point,” Uma said. “But seriously, does anyone other than Gil know you're coming?”

“Jay and Carlos.”

She rolled her eyes. “No shit. Anyone else?”

“Uh, Evie. We've been emailing back and forth for a while.” He grinned weakly. “I followed the 4-Hearts Instagram. She followed me back and didn't realize for three months that it was me. I mostly post pictures of my art, not myself.”

“So that means Mal knows, which means Ben knows.”

Harry ducked his head. “I don't know. She didn't say she told Mal, and I don't talk to her or Ben to ask them myself, but I figure they do.”

Uma didn't say anything for a minute. Harry gnawed on his lip, knowing the question was coming before Uma finally said, “So I'm the only one that didn't know you were coming.”

“I asked Gil to tell you,” Harry mumbled. “I didn't– he was gonna say something, I swear we weren't planning to just spring this on you. We've just been trying to figure out how to bring it up, and I literally just decided to move here not even three weeks ago, just had to wait for my last appointment, we hadn't come up with– fuck, Uma, I'm really sorry.”

“It's… okay,” she said hesitantly. “Don't get me wrong, I'm not _thrilled,_ and I would rather have known beforehand, but it's not like I told you whenever I went to St. Thad’s.”

Harry looked up then, frowning. “You came back home?”

Uma shrugged uncomfortably. “I mean, yeah. I've gone back to visit Mom at least once or twice a year since I moved here. I just sort of stay on that side of town whenever I go.”

Harry sighed. “Are we bad people?”

Uma mulled it over for a few seconds before she said softly, “I don't think so. I think we were just bad for each other. We hurt each other a lot.”

Harry snorted and let another weak, watery laugh. “You've got that right.”

“I want to say sorry,” Uma said, even softer, quiet enough that Harry could barely hear her. “But we said we wouldn't talk about it tonight. So I'll say it later.”

Harry dropped his head back against the seat again, closed his eyes, and waited for the knot in his throat to go down before he managed to say anything. “Same here. I guess I'll apologize to you tomorrow, then.”

He couldn't see it, but he could hear the smile in Uma's voice. “It's four in the morning. It's already tomorrow.”

“If you think I'm not going to sleep for fifteen hours after this, you are _sorely_ mistaken,” he mumbled. “Give me about thirty hours, and then I'll tell you how much I regret the way I treated you.”

“Sounds great,” Uma said tiredly. “I'll tell you how much I hate myself for leaving when you needed me.”

Harry could feel his thoughts going soft and fuzzy, and he was too tired to censor himself. “And I'll say I'm sorry for all the horrible shit I put you through to make you leave.” He yawned again. “But I'll say it tomorrow.”

“Yeah,” Uma choked out. “We'll talk about it tomorrow.”

Harry nodded and managed a faint laugh, barely a puff of air. “Tomorrow's gonna be a hell of a day.”

Uma laughed, too, and it sounded just as frail as his. “Today's been a hell of a day, too. Let's worry about it first.”

Harry couldn't find the energy to nod again, or even to say anything, but he managed a soft hum. He didn't think he fell asleep; he could still hear CJ snoring softly in his ear and Uma whispering into her phone. 

It was all right. She would wake him up if anything happened. For now, he was content to drift, sagging back in his uncomfortable seat and waiting for the others to show up, waiting for the doctor, waiting for a conversation he'd thought he would never have and an apology he'd thought he would never be able to give. 

He'd waited six years. He could wait a few more hours. 

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: very, very vaguely implied child abuse; referenced alcoholism; referenced self-harm; hospitals and waiting rooms; non-graphic discussions of seizures, car crashes, tumors, and emergency surgery (specifically brain surgery to remove said tumor); anxiety attacks; sleep deprivation; and all the messiness that comes with reconnecting with an ex in a stressful situation.
> 
> Also, if anyone is worried: Gil is fine! The surgery is a success, he recovers miraculously quickly, and he grows out his hair again. The rest of the crew comes to visit, Evie immediately falls in love with CJ (despite the fact that all the noise wakes CJ up and triggers one hell of an overtired-toddler tantrum), and Harry finally gets some sleep. Happy endings all around.


End file.
